When the Beatles first stepped off that TWA airliner at the JFK airport in 1964, they blew the press away with their quick quips and Liverpudlian humor. Their staple for press conferences was to come up with as many witticisms as possible, most likely to keep from going mad with all the same boring questions they were asked over and over and over.
Here are a few examples.
Reporter: What have you seen that you like best about our country?
John: You.
Reporter: What do you think your music does for these people?
Ringo: Well, it pleases them, I think. It must because they're buying it.
Reporter: Why does it excite them so much?
Paul: We don't know really.
John: If we knew, we'd for another group and be managers.
Reporter: Ringo, why do you wear two rings on each hand?
Ringo: 'Cause I can't fit them through my nose.
Reporter: Do you think it's wrong to set such a bad example
for teenagers, smoking the way you do?
Ringo: It's better than being alcoholics.
Reporter: What's the secret of your success?
John: We have a press agent.
Reporter: Do you have any special advice for teenagers?
John: Don't get pimples.
Reporter: What do you do when you're cooped up in
a hotel room between shows?
George: We ice skate.
Reporter: Why do you think you're so popular all of a sudden?
John: I don't know, it must be the weather.
Reporter: What do you think of the American girls,
as opposed to the British girls?
George: They're the same, only they speak with an accent.
Reporter: Are you concerned with the rumor going around that the Rolling
Stones are now more important than the Beatles?
Paul: It doesn't worry us.
John: 'Cause we manage them.
Reporter: How many of you are bald, that you have to wear those wigs?
George: I'm bald.
Reporter: You're bald?
George: Yeah.
Paul: Don't tell anyone, please.
John: We're all bald, yeah. And deaf and dumb too.
Reporter (to George): Hi, you're not married.
George: No, I'm George.
Reporter: Did yo write "Ringo's Theme?"
George: No, did you? You haven't been reading the little bits of paper,
have you, that says who writes "Ringo's Theme"?
Reporter: Do you have any plans or arrangements to meet the
Johnson girls (daughters of then-president Lyndon Johnson)?
George: We didn't know they were on the show.
Reporter: You and the snow came to Washington at the same time today.
Which do you think will have the greater impact?
Ringo: The snow. We're going tomorrow.
Reporter: Do you think your records are musical?
John: Obviously they're musical. It's music.
Reporter: All right, but what do you call it? Do you call it bossa nova, rock'n'roll?
Paul: We try not to define it because we get so many wrong classifications of it, it's
no use. We just call it...music? Even if you don't.
Reporter: With a question mark?
John: We'll leave that to the critics.
Paul: With an exclamation mark.